The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Wellbore treatment methods often are used to increase hydrocarbon production by using a treatment fluid to affect a subterranean formation in a manner that increases oil or gas flow from the formation to the wellbore for removal to the surface. Major types of such treatments include fracturing operations, high-rate matrix treatments and acid fracturing, matrix acidizing and injection of chelating agents. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting fluids into a subterranean formation at pressures sufficient to form fractures in the formation, with the fractures increasing flow from the formation to the wellbore. In chemical stimulation, flow capacity is improved by using chemicals to alter formation properties, such as increasing effective permeability by dissolving materials in or etching the subterranean formation. A wellbore may be an open hole or a cased hole where a metal pipe (casing) is placed into the drilled hole and often cemented in place. In a cased wellbore, the casing (and cement if present) typically is perforated in specified locations to allow hydrocarbon flow into the wellbore or to permit treatment fluids to flow from the wellbore to the formation.
To access hydrocarbon effectively and efficiently, it may be desirable to direct the treatment fluid to multiple target zones of interest in a subterranean formation. There may be target zones of interest within various subterranean formations or multiple layers within a particular formation that are preferred for treatment. In prior art methods of hydraulic fracturing treatments, multiple target zones were typically treated by treating one zone within the well at time. These methods usually involved multiple steps of running a perforating gun down the wellbore to the target zone, perforating the target zone, removing the perforating gun, treating the target zone with a hydraulic fracturing fluid, and then isolating the perforated target zone. This process is then subsequently repeated for all the target zones of interest until all the target zones are treated. As can be appreciated, such methods of treating multiple zones can be highly involved, time consuming and costly.
Accordingly, methods of treating multiple zones within a subterranean formation are desired that overcome these shortcomings.